House of Commons - International Development

Select Committee on International Development First Report

5 Climate Change

50. In the Annual Report 2007, DFID highlights that "Climate change is one of the toughest development challenges we are facing. The poorest people in the poorest countries will suffer earliest and most from the impacts of climate change."[119] DFID says that it is committed "to integrate climate change by 2008 into DFID development activities in climate-sensitive sectors, such as agriculture, water, health infrastructure and energy, to help developing countries adopt low carbon energy technologies and to adapt to climate change."[120] In its Response to our report on Sanitation and Water DFID says that its "bid under the Comprehensive Spending Review has prioritised climate change both in terms of helping developing countries adapt, and helping them adopt cleaner development processes".[121] The CSR does not appear to allocate any additional funding specifically for this purpose but simply repeats the commitment announced in the 2007 Budget to allocate £800 million to the Environmental Transformation Fund, which is discussed below.[122]

51. WWF believe that organisational change is critical for developing an effective response to climate change but point out that this has not yet happened in DFID:

"A number of DFID regional offices have reported to WWF a lack of strategic guidance on how to incorporate climate change into their portfolios of work and have as yet received little guidance or internal support from DFID headquarters. […] The majority of country offices still don't have environmental officers or staff with adequate climate change resources and training to mainstream climate change into their work."[123]

We raised this with the Permanent Secretary, who told us that DFID was currently engaged in work to "map out exactly the human resources, numbers and also skills, that will be required".[124] WWF goes on to say that "DFID needs to change much more profoundly, institutionally, structurally and operationally, to be able to live up to the seriousness of the challenge to poverty reduction in the context of climate change. Bolted on efforts to increase capacity will not be sufficient".[125] It is not clear to us from the responses we received from DFID officials that this change is likely to happen. The Permanent Secretary told us that "for some country programmes we shall do a bit more in the area of climate change" but that it will remain the case that most of DFID's work on climate change is done through multilateral bodies.[126]

52. As part of its new PSA, DFID is required to contribute to PSA Delivery Agreement 27—Lead the global effort to avoid dangerous climate change—for which the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is the lead department. The Delivery Agreement sets out DFID's role in relation to assisting developing countries with mitigation and adaptation strategies.[127] It was announced in the 2007 Budget that an £800 million International Environmental Transformation Fund would be established as a joint DFID/DEFRA project "for the purpose of reducing poverty through environmental management and helping developing countries respond to climate change".[128] The UK's contribution to the World Bank's Clean Energy Investment Framework will come out of the Fund. Climate change was one of the three key issues which the Secretary of State discussed with the new President of the World Bank at their first meeting in July.[129]

53. DFID's Director General, Policy and International told us that, together with the World Bank, DFID was discussing with China how the Environmental Transformation Fund could be used to assist China in "getting on to a cleaner development path" and that it was hoped that this would be one of the "flagship pilots of the Fund.[130] However, he stressed that the main focus of the Fund was "about trying to leverage billions of dollars which are potentially available on the balance sheets of the IFIs [international financial institutions] but which are currently not being accessed" rather than DFID taking action directly.[131]

54. Although DFID has shown welcome leadership in seeking to assist developing countries to deal with climate change, this has not yet resulted in changes at country office level, where the necessary assistance with adaptation and mitigation can be given. The Environmental Transformation Fund is a welcome and useful means of tackling climate change but we are concerned that DFID is relying too heavily on operating through multilateral bodies in implementing its climate change policy, which risks climate change being obscured by the different priorities of other aid agencies. We believe that DFID should demonstrate its commitment to tackling climate change by seeking to ensure as a matter of priority that its country office staff are properly supported and resourced to implement this crucial area of policy.

Research on climate change

55. Officials told us that "DFID is apparently the world's largest financier of research on adaptation to climate change in developing countries" and that this work would increase.[132] DFID's Research Funding Framework 2005-07 indicated that climate change would become one of four major research themes.[133] However, in the Annual Report, the four discrete areas listed as receiving research funding are: human development; growth and livelihoods; social, political and environmental change; and communications.[134] Climate change is presumably part of the social, political and environmental change category, which received less than half the funding which human development and growth and livelihoods research received in 2006-07 (£20.2 million compared to £48.2 and £40.7 million respectively) and is still receiving significantly less than these categories in 2007-08 (£27.5 million compared to £48 million and £45 million).

56. Consultation is under way on a new Research Strategy which will begin in 2008. The consultation document says that DFID's research budget will increase from £110 million in 2005-06 to £220 million in 2010 which will mean that £650 million will be available to fund new research programmes in the next strategy period, 2008-2013. DFID's intention is to include in the new research strategy "the impact of climate change on poverty, moving towards research that helps partner countries understand, influence and adapt to changes and future 'shocks' more broadly".[135]

57. In our report on Sanitation and Water, we welcomed the leadership DFID had shown through its work on climate change and water resources but stressed that the importance of this work needed to be reflected in the Comprehensive Spending Review settlement.[136] It was clear to us from the evidence we received during that inquiry that many developing countries have not yet even begun to assess the likely implications for them of climate change and that assistance from DFID and other donors would be vital. DFID's Director General, Policy and International told us:

"essentially the general issue on adaptation to climate change in developing countries is about the fact that changes in climate dramatically affect the paths to development that are available to them. The sooner that is evidenced and exemplified in particular countries and they are able to plan for the consequences the better in terms of continued economic growth and the achievement of the MDGs."[137]

58. We agree that assistance to developing countries to adopt mitigation and adaptation strategies to deal with climate change needs to be given sooner rather than later. We therefore recommend that research funding allocated to climate change under the new Research Strategy is set at a level which reflects its urgency as a development issue.

119 Development on the Record, DFID Annual Report 2007, paragraph 8.2 Back

120 Development on the Record, DFID Annual Report 2007, paragraph 8.12 Back

121 Seventh Special Report, Session 2006-07, HC 854, response to paragraph 133 Back

122 HM Treasury/DFID Press Notice 9 October 2007 Back

123 Ev 116 Back

124 Q8 [Sir Suma Chakrabarti] Back

125 Ev 118 Back

126 Q6 Back

127 PSA Delivery Agreement 27, paragraphs 3.8-3.9 Back

128 Q6 Back

129 "Gordon's golden boy swots up on how to change the world", Observer, 8 July 2007 Back

130 Q8 Back